OTC: Texas Congressman serves political tripe for breakfast

Rep. Bill Flores’ breakfast discussion at the Offshore Technology Conference was supposed to be about U.S. energy policy: “realities, fantasy and rhetoric.” But the only item on the menu seemed to be rhetoric.

Much of the speech was a harangue against the Obama administration and how its crippling energy development, largely by over regulating oil and gas and promoting alternative fuels. In keeping with the insular nature of OTC, Flores, R-Waco and one of the lowest-ranking members of the House Natural Resources Committee, noted his 30 years of “getting his fingernails dirty” in the energy business, where he was an accountant and executive.

Flores’ comments were straight political fare: the Environmental Protection Agency is evil, the Fish and Wildlife Service is out of control – adding so many “bugs” to the endangered species list that Flores said he might propose a bill to designate humans as an endangered species.

He also embraced another popular theme of this conference: energy vs. tech. Earlier in the week, a speaker suggested that people hate energy companies for making money but love Google, which makes more. Today, Flores tweaked the formula: the people oppose tax benefits for energy companies but support them for Apple, which makes more money and pays less taxes.

Knowing his audience, Flores kicked off his talk by asking for a show of hands of how many people in the room thought Obama was causing higher gasoline prices. No need to count the response.

Alternative energy received a few fleeting mentions, but the failed solar company Solyndra was mentioned at least half a dozen times, at least twice as the punchlines for jokes that the audience at up.

As his political rant ended, Flores took questions, one of which reflected another popular meme of OTC: that the American public is too dumb to understand energy issues. Flores rejected that notion, but said people need better information.

If the political nature of the event was ever in doubt, Flores made sure everyone knew why he was there. Asked what the industry can do to improve its public image, he said energy companies need to tell elected officials what they need.

“Be a sentry for me,” he said. And then he added: “Some of you need to write checks.”